Arrest of CEO of 'Azim Khodro' with 700 Billion Toman Debt

The Tehran prosecutor announced the arrest of the CEO of Azim Khodro and another suspect in the case, stating that the company had pre-sold four thousand vehicles, with plaintiffs claiming 700 billion toman in debts. According to IRNA news agency, Abbas Jafari Dolat Abadi said on Saturday, December 3, that the plaintiffs have a claim of 700 billion toman, but the assets of the suspects are valued at only 200 billion toman. Azim Khodro had begun pre-selling two foreign vehicles, 'Hanteng' and 'Foton Savana', but at that time, some automotive websites had described the announced prices in this pre-sale as 'strange'. On the Azim Khodro website, Reza Azimi is introduced as the CEO of the company, which was established in 2002 and received a pre-sale license from the Ministry of Industry. However, the Tehran prosecutor stated that the company had a license to pre-sell 150 vehicles but had pre-sold four thousand. The Tehran prosecutor had previously described the cases of violations in vehicle pre-sales as the 'second bitter experience' following the issue of financial and credit institutions, reporting that 17 cases with 8,500 plaintiffs had been formed regarding this issue. Meysam Rezaei, the head of the Association of Employers of Vehicle Importers, who has reportedly been arrested for involvement in hacking the website of the Trade Development Organization of Iran and illegal vehicle imports, is the CEO of Miftah Rahnavard. Meanwhile, the Tehran prosecutor stated that Miftah Rahnavard also has 1,400 plaintiffs. The prosecutor also announced that indictments have been issued for 25 individuals related to currency issues, and their court hearings will be held soon. According to Mr. Jafari Dolat Abadi, in the past month, 146 people have been arrested in connection with currency issues, with more than 100 of them still in custody and some released on bail. He also mentioned that an indictment has been issued for Ahmad Iraqi, the former currency deputy of the Central Bank. Previously, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, the spokesman for the judiciary, had reported that indictments had been issued for the former currency deputy of the Central Bank, a director general of the bank, and six others for 'distributing currency outside regulations' in the market, and the former head of the bank is still banned from leaving the country. Ahmad Iraqi was arrested on August 5 and released after two months. Following turmoil in Iran's currency market, Vahid Mazloomian and Mohammad Esmail Qasemi, two coin sellers, were executed, and Dariush Ebrahimi Bilandi and Younes Bahadadini were also sentenced to death.